The billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club paid a ransom in 1998 to free
two British charity workers who were being held hostage by Chechen rebels, a
court was told yesterday.

Roman Abramovich told the Commercial Court that he had paid for the release of
Camilla Carr and Jon James, aid workers who were held hostage in Chechnya
for 14 months after being seized by gunmen in Grozny in July 1997.

Mr Abramovich made the surprising claim on his second day of giving evidence
in his legal battle against a rival oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, who is suing
him for $6